Sub Panel recommendation - needed?

[SB440R/T]

We are building our home now (in sig) and a few people have recommended putting a sub panel in the garage. If my main panel is in the garage will it matter? What amp rating should it be? How many spots should it have?

This is what I plan on doing for the lighting? Three different circuits so I won't use to much energy when my wife leaves the light on. Do I need the 4 lights on the left side if I just plan on having her park there? My work area will be on the right side.

I plan to use a smallish MIG welder do do simple fab work for my truck, but all the big stuff will be outsourced to a professional, anything that involves safety.

 

[pattenp]

I don't see a need for a sub panel in the garage along with the main panel being in the garage. Just make sure the main panel is large and leaves you some room for additional circuits if needed.

 

[Junkman]

It seems that no matter how large of a panel you install as the main panel, it will eventually get filled, and you will need a sub panel. If it were me, I would start with the sub panel for the garage, and leave the rest of the main panel for the rest of the house. Same for the lights, you can never have too many lights. If the wife has a habit of leaving a light on, then install a few lights on twist timers, so the most that it will be left on for will be the maximum length of time on the timer you pick. I have one garage light on a passive infrared switch, so it goes off after 10 minutes, if it doesn't sense any movement. It is a single light that give off enough light that you can navigate the garage, but not enough to work on a vehicle. LED's are a great choice, since they draw so little current, give off a lot of light, and the prices keep dropping.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

What size(number of spaces) and brand of main panel are u putting in?

 

[SB440R/T]

What size(number of spaces) and brand of main panel are u putting in?

Not really sure yet. Doing the walk through for the electrical this week.

 

[SB440R/T]

It seems that no matter how large of a panel you install as the main panel, it will eventually get filled, and you will need a sub panel. If it were me, I would start with the sub panel for the garage, and leave the rest of the main panel for the rest of the house. Same for the lights, you can never have too many lights. If the wife has a habit of leaving a light on, then install a few lights on twist timers, so the most that it will be left on for will be the maximum length of time on the timer you pick. I have one garage light on a passive infrared switch, so it goes off after 10 minutes, if it doesn't sense any movement. It is a single light that give off enough light that you can navigate the garage, but not enough to work on a vehicle. LED's are a great choice, since they draw so little current, give off a lot of light, and the prices keep dropping.

I do plan on doing LED lights in the garage. Thanks for the info.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Tell them to put in a big enough service and panel where you dont end up with a panel full of tandem breakers and still have spares.

 

[SB440R/T]

Tell them to put in a big enough service and panel where you dont end up with a panel full of tandem breakers and still have spares.

Unfortunately I have to do it all through my wife. I think I have annoyed the builder enough already.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Thats what he gets paid for!

 

[SB440R/T]

Thats what he gets paid for!

I agree. I would probably annoy him less if I could be there. 30 more days and I will be home.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

TDY? Too bad Im not closer,Id go scope the situation out for ya.

 

[SB440R/T]

TDY? Too bad Im not closer,Id go scope the situation out for ya.

Deployment, 5 months in.

 

[SB440R/T]

Wife did the walk through and a Sub-panel will go in the garage with extra circuits for expansion later.

 

[acer66]

I would go with a big main and a sub for the garage.

 

[SB440R/T]

I would go with a big main and a sub for the garage.

What if the main is in the garage?

 

[Norcal]

Tell them to put in a big enough service and panel where you dont end up with a panel full of tandem breakers and still have spares.

With AFCI requirements now, pretty hard to use twin breakers.

 

[acer66]

What if the main is in the garage?

Would not matter to me, I have hardly seen a panel to big, only to small.
What Junkman said, even if you have some space left in the beginning it will fill up over time, like when you for the first time have a big nice garage, house etc and think to yourself how am I ever going to use all that space?
After a while and you start to think I need a bigger place.

That of course might be just me, I live in an apartment, just bought a house with a nice sized garage, two sheds and I am running out of space and I do not even know where half of all that stuff came from.

 

[ard]

Consider a few conduit runs from the main panel for 'future use'.

I ran 3 pieces of 1.5" under the garage slab into the crawl space..INVALUABLE. One powers the pool sub 150feet away, another is all the outdoor lights and a few other circuits we added over the years. The last got turned into the feed from our solar panels.

Panel was big too- like that advice .. I have a 400A service with a 200A panel at the garage, then a 200A sub in the house itself

Look at the overall house plan and think "where would I think "man am I a genius" when- in 5 years, you can add something outside and not have to ruin the landscaping to do so. Pool, spa, outbuilding, deck.

 

[sberry]

Gas or electric appliances ?

 

[CNGsaves]

+1 for subpanel in garage just for all circuits there . . . . you WILL want more stuff later for 240v welder, compressor, etc.

Also, with move towards electric cars you may need TWO 240v circuits just for those !!

Also, plumb the garage for Natural Gas . . . . very easy to hang a heater later if all the black pipe steel has been placed in wall.

 

[Junkman]

Sub panels are like money in the bank.. You never have too much. One thing that I forgot to mention, and that is if you locate a sub panel central in the living space, you won't have that far to go if you pop a circuit breaker. Also, it will make your wiring runs much shorter, saving you on the cost of wire. It will also look neater, and you will have the luxury of having some of the room on one breaker, and the rest on another breaker. You might not think of this as much of an advantage, but when a room that is all on one breaker goes dark, it suddenly becomes important. If you add onto the home in later years, it will also make life a lot easier, not needed to upgrade the electric service to accommodate the addition. One final thought is that you know what the current electrical code is, and all you have to do is meet it today. With the extra space, you will "kind of" be grandfathered in against some new code that might make changes more expensive and difficult.
I like the idea of adding some PVC runs to the other areas, and capping them for future use. Just don't make the mistake that I did, and not record the exact location, if they are buried. It is a lot easier to find them if you keep a picture book, with drawings, so you know exactly where everything is located. I didn't do it with the PVC lines, but I did with the septic, and it saved a lot of digging to locate the distribution box clean out cover.
The one thing that you can learn from old people, is that they made the mistakes, that you have yet to make. If you learn from their mistakes, there is no need to make your own same mistakes. We all get old too soon, and smart too late.